| SNK announced the Famicom Athena as a Disk Card game. In November 1986 Marukatsu Famicom expected it in late December at ¥3,300; by mid-December Famicom Tsushin and Marukatsu Famicom, and SNK's own advertisement in Family Computer Magazine's issue dated 2 January 1987, put it in late January 1987, its price not yet set. | p. 107 (image 107), previewp. 107 (image 107), preview, release badge | Magazine |
| The Famicom cartridge, KAC-IK, went on sale on 26 November 1986 at ¥5,500, by its advertisement in Marukatsu Famicom. The ad gives it a 1-megabit ROM, two players at once, and joining mid-game. | p. 4 (image 4), advertisementp. 4 (image 4), advertisementp. 4 (image 4), advertisement | Magazine |
| K Amusement Leasing published the Famicom version: its advertisement names the company as seller, and the manual's back cover carries its name and addresses. Both carry 1986 copyright lines for K Amusement Leasing and SNK Electronics. | p. 4 (image 4), advertisementp. 4 (image 4), advertisement | Magazine |
| Marukatsu Famicom wrote in November 1986 that the Famicom version is far harder than the arcade game, and called its continue mode Ralf and Clark's biggest weapon. | p. 107 (image 107), 怒 map featurep. 107 (image 107), 怒 map feature | Magazine |
| Marukatsu Famicom's new-release feature of 28 November 1986 said the Famicom game answered players' eager demand and kept the arcade version's characters. | p. 103 (image 103), 超新作特Q (new-release feature)p. 103 (image 103) | Magazine |
| Marukatsu Famicom's ranking of best scorers of 28 November 1986 lists a Star Soldier score of 5,033,800 points, by 斉藤孝 of Kanagawa. | p. 93 (image 93), マルカツ認定 ザ・ベスト・スコアラーズ, read on the page image | Magazine |
| Taito advertised the Famicom cartridge as a new release on Wednesday 10 December 1986. Famicom Magazine's weekly best 10 lists it 3rd in the week of 8 to 14 December, marked ★, the magazine's sign for a game new that week. | image 2 (inside front cover, unnumbered), Taito advertisement | Magazine |
| The cartridge's list price was 5,300 yen. | p. 100 (image 100), heading badge | Magazine |
| Taito sold the game as Beat Takeshi's work. Its advertisements call it a Famicom game by Beat Takeshi (ビートたけし作), the title screen shown in Marukatsu Famicom of 28 November 1986 reads "FROM BEAT TAKESHI", and the manual's copyright line names Taito and Beat Takeshi, 1986. | p. 100 (image 100), title-screen photographimage 2 (inside front cover, unnumbered), Taito advertisement | Magazine |
| The game uses the microphone on the Famicom's second controller. The manual says that if "moshi moshi" keeps appearing on screen with no controller touched, the player should press down and A on controller II together, and that controller II's A button then stands in for the microphone, also when the microphone is broken, until a reset or a game over. | p. 101 (image 101), かんじんのゲーム内容はというと…… | Manual |
| Marukatsu Famicom ran what it called an exclusive scoop of the shoot of the game's commercial film. It reported that the commercial was filmed on 21 October 1986 in Studio 2 of the studio it prints as テイクスタジオ, inside the former TV Asahi (元テレビ朝日の中), to air from 20 November, by staff who had worked with Taito since the commercial for The Legend of Kage, and printed photographs of Beat Takeshi at the shoot with a controller. | p. 100 (image 100), 最強のスタッフに囲まれてp. 100 (image 100)p. 100 (image 100)p. 100 (image 100), heading over the photographp. 100 (image 100), captions to the oval photograph and the film strip | Magazine |
| Marukatsu Famicom's preview of 28 November 1986, which it billed as its first report (第1報) with screen photographs at last, gave the setting as an ordinary salaryman who looks like Takeshi, living with his wife and child, pulled into an extraordinary world. It said the game drew on Takeshi's own experiences and stories, with pachinko-parlour and karaoke-snack-bar scenes, gags in the conversation commands, and controller II's microphone, and its captions describe a snack bar where a karaoke song costs 300 yen and a pachinko parlour where winning seems to raise money. It said the box would come with a booklet of hints. | p. 101 (image 101), かんじんのゲーム内容はというと…… (as for the game itself)p. 101 (image 101)p. 101 (image 101)p. 101 (image 101), caption to the box photographp. 101 (image 101), headingp. 101 (image 101), SCOOP1 captionp. 101 (image 101), SCOOP2 caption | Magazine |